Measuring the added value of workplace change. Comparison between Theory and Practice

Purpose: Worldwide organisations have introduced more flexibility in place, time and ways of working. In order to be able to define the added value of workplace change, a clear performance measurement system is needed to measure organisational performance in connection to real estate before and after the change. This paper compares various performance measurement systems from the literature with current performance management in practice in search of opportunities for improvement and prioritization.<br/>Methodology: In addition to a review of literature, three case studies were conducted, two in Thailand and one in the Netherlands. Special attention is paid to appraisal of change by the end users i.e. employee satisfaction and perceived productivity support .<br/>Findings: Many performance criteria and KPIs from literature are used in practice. However, apart from the Balanced Scorecard no other performance measurement system from literature is literally applied. Regarding most issues, none of the organisations conducted a sound comparison of the impact of their real estate on organisational performance before and after the change. In one case only both ex ante and ex post data were collected about the appraisal of change by the end users. Employees’ appraisals showed to be linked to the location of the building, the office concept, the experience value of the exterior and interior design, and technical equipment.<br/>Practical implications: The proposed performance measures can be used as a reference frame for value adding management of facilities. Based on the findings a step-by-step procedure has been developed to facilitate the selection of prioritized key performance indicators.<br/>Research limitations: The number of cases is limited. Additional case studies in depth are needed to get a wider picture of practice. Besides, still much work has to be done to operationalize all performance criteria.<br/>Originality/value: This research connects the worlds of performance measurement and added value of workplace change in two different contexts